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The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has published contracts developed expressly for professional services between landscape architects and their clients. The two new forms are the first official contract forms distributed by ASLA. They include a “standard” form with contractual terms and conditions and a detailed scope of services, and a “short form” contract with only basic terms and conditions.
The impetus for the new contracts was ASLA’s desire to respond to member concerns that contract forms created by clients or adapted from standard forms for allied professions were inappropriate for the professional services provided by ASLA members in private practice. Landscape architects are often asked to sign professional services agreements that confuse their scope of services with that of the prime professional or construction subcontracts with design-build entities that did not recognize normal legal liability based on a professional standard of care. The contracts were published following a two-year development effort.
The Standard Form Contract for Professional Services Between Landscape Architect and Client includes as an exhibit a detailed list of services frequently included as the basic scope of services provided by landscape architects. The list also features services frequently considered supplemental or beyond anticipated services and requiring additional compensation. While the form contains standard terms and conditions that are well-balanced and reasonable, the risk management value of the form is that the more specifically the anticipated scope of services can be described when contracting the less chance of misunderstanding at a later point.
The Standard Short Form Contract for Professional Services Between Landscape Architect and Client is available for use on relatively simple and usually smaller projects for which the risks of possible claims are deemed remote. While both contracts can be used for either direct client services or in interprofessional relationships, the Standard Short Form Contract is focused on small residential projects with an established or known client. It is also suitable for a project that, in addition to being small in size, will be brief in duration. The document does not contain the detailed provisions of the full-length standard form with regard to scope of services or issues such as construction safety, dispute resolution, ownership of documents, insurance, consequential damages, and termination and suspension. In the Standard Short Form Contract these issues are handled more briefly or not at all given the assumption that the project for which the document is used is anticipated to have little risk. The payment provisions are also simplified.
Schinnerer will provide more information for landscape architects on their contractual risks and the value of these standard contract forms at the ASLA national convention in Philadelphia in October. More information on the contracts can be obtained through the professional practice page at www.asla.org.
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